The present invention relates to an apparatus and equipment for fiber optically measuring the absolute position of objects, particularly within electromagnetically shielded and screened spaces and rooms.
Multidimensional, rapidly repeatable measurements of positions are usually carried out through suitable electronic techniques or optical techniques using appropriate cameras. All these efforts have in common that a part of the measuring electronic has to be placed in the vicinity of the object that is subject to the measurement, or there must be available a direct visual connection, i.e. the object must be in the line of sight of some equipment. In the case of highly sensitive measurements, including, for example, magnetic field measurements in the human brain under utilization of supra conductor sensors, there may be undersirable and even impermissable electro magnetic stray fields in the vicinity of the object or, for some reasons, on the basis of some screening or shielding a visual observation is not possible.
German Patent application No. 35 11 757 describes a device for measuring the position of a precision transducer being provided with a light source which is equipped with a fluorescent collector cooperating generally with light detectors. The flourescent device specifically has a collector surface that is oriented to that light source. Boundary lines of that collector surface are provided with solar cells which provide output signals to be utilized, in turn, by an appropriate evaluation electronic, by means of which ultimately the spot on the fluorescent when being iluminated is determined in relation to a coordinate system that is superimposed upon the collector surface. Here then, one evaluates the ratio between the solar cell currents on opposite situated boundary surfaces in relation to each other, to thereby determine the coordinate values.